1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to notification methods and systems, and in particular, to electronic, networked notification systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional notification systems intended for contacting known individuals, such as a company's employees, are often cumbersome to setup, operate and maintain. For example, many such notification systems have one or a few operators type in the name and phone numbers of all those to be included in a notification group, which can result in the time consuming task of typing hundreds or thousands of entries and can further result in many errors.
In addition, while there have been recent advances in communication technologies, such as cell phones, two-way pagers, SMS messaging, instant messaging, and still other communication technologies, many conventional emergency notification systems are unable to provide emergency notifications to one or more of the foregoing communication technologies. Therefore, emergency notifications, as well as other notifications, may not be communicated to a recipient as quickly or efficiently as desired.
Further, many conventional notification systems do not track whether a notification was received and/or by which means of communication the notification was received. This can result in important notifications not being actually received by the appropriate individual, or repeated notifications being sent out unnecessarily.
In addition, many conventional notification systems do not provide adequate or timely reporting of confirmations of notification receipt. Thus, the entity issuing the notification, such as in an emergency situation, cannot track in real time who has received notification.